Massive Update?

1. I am not in hibernation. It is July in the Northern Hemisphere.

2. I am taking a microscopy course for conservators this week at the IFA and have little access to email and internet which is torture when you get to #6 on my list. It's me and 12 other conservators from various fields: paintings conservation, textiles and paper, etc. So that was fun when we introduced ourselves and said what we work on. So after people saying "Paintings", "Books", "Anthropological Artifacts" we get to me: "Buildings" Beat that fancy pantses. Actually though they are all very nice. And I am having a great time. Makes me dread actually going back to work. I really need to be a professional academic.

Today we looked at fibers! Wool! Silk! Cotton! Alpaca! Linen! Huzzah! (also bizarro stuff like Kevlar) We talked S-twist and Z-twist. Funny how in reading about spinning I never totally understood what that meant, but thanks to this course I can identify them! We started on pigment identification today and will continue tomorrow. I am, understandably, very excited about this class and wish it could last forever.

3. I am in Ravelry! Got the invite this morning but could not promptly start loading pics and projects due to item #2 above.

4. Socks are progressing nicely. Hope to have them done this week.

5. Bedbug extermination finished (?) Have commenced the unpacking because I refuse to live out of garbage bags for 3 weeks (the most asinine directive ever IMO). Yarn remains in ziploc bags and probably will stay there for quite a while. Made the trip to the Container Store the other day and bought new storage containers for it. Not the pattern I would've chosen ideally, but otherwise I'm loving them. I was warned about the velcro closure on the front in advance but figured I'd be storing most of the stash still in the ziplocs.

6. Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Many tears were shed. Loved it. Loved it. Loved. It.

More discussion, more depth later. Right now must commence uploading to the wonder that is Ravelry.